Frank: Why do the Liberals believe they can take away our voting rights?

It has been roughly a year since the Liberals took power. And it took them exactly that long to undermine a key campaign promise: Restoring the voting rights of more than one million Canadian citizens living abroad.

What is quickly becoming apparent is that when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared, “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian,” there was fine print declaring, “Except when Parliament decides otherwise.”

Early next year, the Supreme Court will hear Frank v. Canada, a case that will determine the constitutionality of barring long-term non-resident Canadian citizens from voting from outside of the country by special ballot. The case arose because Stephen Harper’s Conservative government administratively disenfranchised Canadians living abroad. The Conservatives then used the courts to argue that disenfranchising expats was constitutional. On Oct. 20, the Liberals announced that they will be advancing the position of the Conservative government by challenging, rather than supporting, legal efforts to have the Supreme Court permanently establish the voting rights of Canadian citizens living abroad.

Frank v. Canada hinges on Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states, “Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of the members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.” Canadian citizens living abroad want the Supreme Court to affirm that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects their voting rights. The Liberals, on the other hand, are trying to convince the Supreme Court that it is constitutional for the government to disenfranchise millions of Canadians because of where they reside.

Remarkably, the Liberals are undertaking these efforts even as Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef is promising legislation that will restore voting rights to Canadians living abroad. Monsef’s office has explained the government’s actions as defending “Parliament’s right to make laws that are compliant with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Monsef’s statement is a red herring.

Any finding by the Supreme Court in Frank v. Canada would not prevent the Canadian government from revising the current legislation, which bars expats from voting. The Supreme Court cannot prevent Parliament from making laws that comply with the Charter. The role of the court is to interpret the Charter and to determine whether legislation is constitutional. The Supreme Court also has the power to invalidate laws that violate the Charter rights of its citizens.

Ultimately, the government has adopted a dangerous and unnecessary position. They are seeking to make voting rights, which should be inalienable and irrevocable, subject to the political whims of Parliament. And they are claiming that it is Parliament’s right to expand or contract the voting rights of its non-resident citizens.

Canadians living abroad have been down that road before with Stephen Harper. They were excluded from two federal elections as a result. The Liberals must therefore publicly answer the following question: What will happen if they win at the Supreme Court and some future government – imbued with the power to disenfranchise expats – decides to strip these Canadians of their voting rights?

A more urgent question also emerges that concerns all Canadians: Do the Liberals imagine that this discretionary power to expand or revoke voting rights of citizens is limited to Canadians living abroad or do they believe it extends to other groups of Canadians?

As the lead applicant in Frank v. Canada, I believe that Canadian citizens – regardless of where they reside – should choose their government. We should all be worried that the Liberals believe that the government should have the right to choose its voters.

Ultimately, it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide whether Section 3 of the Charter extends beyond Canada’s physical borders. In the meantime, the voting rights of well over a million citizens hang in the balance.

Gillian Frank is the lead applicant in Frank v. Canada, a case on expat voting rights that will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in February 2017. He tweets from @1gillianfrank1

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